


Prompt: Painful Wound Cleaning- Keith (Voltron) and Shiro (Voltron)

by AnaliseGrey



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [16]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Blood, Gen, Injury, Keith's had a bad day, Muzzle, Shiro is kind of pissed, broken bones (though not explicit), painful wound cleaning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 18:03:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15321180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnaliseGrey/pseuds/AnaliseGrey
Summary: Voltronbthb on tumblr asked: “painful wound-cleaning w/ sheith??”This is a direct follow-up to the previous piece in this series,Kick Them While They're Down.





	Prompt: Painful Wound Cleaning- Keith (Voltron) and Shiro (Voltron)

Shiro had already been in his lion, about to come back inside the Castle when Pidge had hailed him over comms.

“Hey, Shiro, before you come in, Keith’s beacon triggered.”

Shiro’s blood ran cold. He knew Pidge had given Keith the beacon just in case. They were all aware of the Blade of Marmora’s policy on going after lost operatives.

They didn’t.

Pidge had put together a gadget based on the distress beacons they gave to members of the coalition. If something happened, and Keith didn’t think the Blades would come for him, he could trigger the beacon, and the paladins would respond. It had made Shiro feel a little better about sending him off to who knew what. He was even more glad now, knowing he’d had it and been able to use it, instead of just disappearing and them never knowing anything had been wrong.

“Coordinates?”

Pidge told him.

“I’m going ahead. Follow once you’re ready.”

He knew it wasn't the most responsible action, but this was Keith. If he was using the beacon, that meant things were already pretty bad, and Shiro didn’t want to wait one second longer to go after him.

He entered the coordinates, and Black took off; according to the map that popped up on Shiro’s display, it wasn’t far. At their current speed, they’d reach the area in maybe half a varga. As soon as Shiro thought he was in comms range, he started trying to hail Keith.

The first few tries there was nothing but static, but Shiro didn’t let that bother him. He knew until he got closer there wasn’t a great chance at a response. The closer he got without an answer, though, the more worried he became. He was almost on top of the given coordinates when he spotted a small pod, floating motionless in place. He recognized it as one of the types the Blade used on solo missions.

“Keith, this is Shiro, do you copy? We’ve received your distress signal, please respond.”

There was another crackle of static, but this time it was followed by a noise. It sounded like Keith’s voice, but it was muffled, garbled somehow. That couldn’t be good.

“I’m going to have Black come get you on board, then I’ll be down to help you. Hold tight.”

He wasn’t completely stupid; he had Black scan the pod before taking it onboard into the hold, but the only life signs it found were Keith’s. Shiro set Black to standby, and made his way down to the hold. The pod hadn’t opened, and he approached cautiously, unsure if Keith was even fully conscious or not. He unsealed the hatch, but paused before entering. “Keith, it’s Shiro, I’m coming into the pod now.”

He entered and froze as the iron tang of blood hit him.  _ Shit _ .

He scrambled to the front, and there was Keith, sprawled out in the pilot’s chair. His hands were cuffed together, there looked to be some kind of wound in his side though it was haphazardly covered in red-soaked bandages. And on his head was-

-was…

Shiro’s brain stuttered to a stop, trying to parse what he was seeing, trying to keep himself present. God, Keith was wearing a fucking  _ muzzle _ . How- who would-

Well, he knew at least one group who would, but he didn’t think the Galra were responsible this time. Shiro shook his head in an effort to clear it. He could have a freakout later. Right now Keith needed his help.

“Keith?”

Keith groaned, the sound muffled, but his eyes slitted open. It took a moment, but finally they found Shiro and he could tell when Keith realized Shiro was there. His eyes slid shut again and a shudder ran through him, and Shiro had the sudden wild urge to track down whoever had done this and have some very strong words with them. Possibly with his fist.

Shiro stepped closer, moving slowly as not to startle Keith. “Hey, it’s ok, I’ve got you, we’re in Black’s hold, it’s ok.” Shiro reached out and carefully took Keith’s chin in hand, tilting his head up. “Hey, can you look at me a second? I need to check your eyes.”

Keith’s eyes opened again, and he scowled up at Shiro, even if there wasn’t a lot of heat in it. He tried to say something, but Shiro couldn’t understand him past the muzzle.

“Hold on, can you lean forward? I can maybe get that off of you.”

Keith sat up, and Shiro didn’t miss the grimace of pain from the effort.

“I know, I’m sorry, just...hold on.” Shiro leaned over, and he had to squash another surge of fury when he saw the lock on the back of the muzzle. No wonder Keith hadn’t been able to get it off. Shiro reached out with his right hand. “Stay very still, Keith.” He grabbed onto the lock and lit his hand for a split second, sheering the lock off the buckle mechanism, and tossed it to the side in the cockpit where neither of them would touch it by accident. Shiro pulled the shank of the lock out of the buckle and tossed that as well before unbuckling the straps of the muzzle and pulling it off over the top of Keith’s head. He moved back around in front of Keith and helped him ease the bar out from his mouth. There were marks in the softer surface of the bar from Keith’s teeth, and Shiro felt his jaw tick. He was going to have to destroy so many gladiators on the training deck later.

He tossed the rest of the muzzle aside, and reached up again to rub his thumbs along the hinges of Keith’s jaw. “How’s that, better?”

Keith worked his jaw some, then sighed. “Yeah, thanks.”

“So, aside from the obvious hole in your side, what else should I know about?” Keith had a spot on the bridge of his nose that had been rubbed red by the straps, and similar marks at the corners of his mouth. Shiro’s scar had been healed since...well since before he could remember, but it gave a phantom twinge. He didn’t know for sure where his scar was from, but this gave him unpleasant ideas about it.

“Shoulder-” Keith said, voice rasping. “Dislocated. Ribs probably broken. Lots of bruises.” He tried to straighten up again, and winced. “Lots and lots of bruises.”

Shiro looked around and spotted the first aid kit where Keith had left it on the floor behind his chair. He reached down and grabbed few packets of cleansing wipes and more bandages, and moved back in front of Keith. “I’m going to get those cuffs off you, then try to reset your shoulder before anything else, ok?”

Keith nodded, eyes sliding shut, though Shiro thought it had more to do with the toll his injuries were taking on him than any amount of trust Keith had in him. Shiro checked over the cuffs, and found the closure points on each. He gripped carefully with his right hand and pulled, the first cuff snapping open, the mechanism no match for the enhanced strength of his prosthetic. The second cuff soon met the same fate as the first, and Shiro tossed them aside.

“Which shoulder?”

“Right.”

It had been hard to tell with how Keith was slumped in the chair, but now that Shiro knew where to look, he could tell the shape of Keith’s shoulder under the Marmora suit wasn’t sitting correctly. He took hold of Keith’s wrist in one hand, and his elbow with the other. “Take as deep a breath as you can, and let it out slowly.”

Keith did as he was told, and as he started to exhale, Shiro popped his shoulder back in; the rest of Keith’s breath came out as a shout.

“ _ Damnit _ , Shiro-” Keith gently hit his head back against the headrest on his seat. “Ow.”

“Yeah, I know, sorry. But it’s easier if I don't warn you. No chance to tense up.”

“I know.” Keith took another shaky breath, then opened his eyes and glanced over. “Now what?”

“Now we try to clean some of this up so I can see how bad it is. The others are on their way, but I want a better idea of what we’re dealing with so we can move quickly once they’re here.” Shiro reached for where the bloody bandage sat, but paused before he touched it. “Is it ok if I take this off?”

Keith nodded. “Yeah. Just...careful. And there’s an exit in the back, I just couldn’t reach it.”

Shiro muttered a curse under his breath, and carefully lifted the bandage. Keith whined quietly when it stuck, but didn’t stop Shiro from tugging it off. Shiro hissed through his teeth; there was a lot of blood.

“I’m going to try to clean up around this so I can get a better look. It’s going to hurt.”

Keith aimed a tired smile at him and grabbed onto the armrests of the pilot’s seat. “It’s been that kind of day. Go ahead.”

Shiro helped him strip down to the waist so he wouldn’t have to work around the suit. Shiro ripped open one of pre-dampened cleaning pads, and the smell of disinfectant made him wrinkle his nose and fight back a sneeze. It helped cover some of the blood smell, though. “Here we go.”

Keith tightened his grip on the armrests and Shiro started wiping away blood from around the entrance wound, working his way in closer. Small pained sounds kept slipping out from Keith’s clenched jaw, but every time Shiro asked if he wanted a break, Keith just shook his head no, his eyes scrunched shut. “Just get it over with.”

Shiro swiped a little too close to the actual wound and Keith let out a strangled scream. Shiro jerked his hand back like he’d been shocked. “Sorry, sorry, I know it hurts. The bleeding’s slowed for now; I don’t want to do too much more, it might start again. You should be stable enough to move, as long a we get you into a pod pretty soon.” Shiro reached up and brushed Keith’s bangs back from his face; he’d gone paler than usual, a light sheen of sweat on his face. “You holding up ok? No passing out on me, I need you to stay awake.”

“So bossy.” There was a ghost of a smile on Keith’s lips as he cracked his eyes open.

Shiro smiled back at him. “Yeah, I know.”

He continued to check Keith over, noticing with dismay the mottled bruising around Keith’s torso, some of which looked boot-shaped. There was what looked like a pair of small burns on his left shoulder, but Keith barely flinched when Shiro swiped over them with a fresh disinfectant wipe.

“Taser.” Keith murmured, tilting his head to the side to see what had caught Shiro’s attention.

“How long were you down there for?” From what Shiro could tell, the bruising and injuries all looked recent, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

“Only got to Gom maybe six vargas ago?”

Shiro blinked at Keith in amazement. “This all happened  _ today _ ?”

“Yeah.” Keith snorted a laugh which turned into a bout of coughing. Shiro helped steady him as Keith paled further and visibly fought to control his breathing. He finally managed to gasp out, “It’s been kind of a shitty day.”

Shiro carefully ruffled a hand through Keith’s hair. “I bet.”

Black gently pinged at Shiro’s mind, letting him know the Castle had arrived, and that she was going to head to the hangar. He sent back warm gratitude, and got a soft huff in return; as if he’d have done any less for any of the paladins in trouble.

“Ok, Black is getting us into the Castle, so we should get you up and ready to go.”

Keith sighed and began to push himself up from the chair. He made it a step before his knees buckled, but Shiro was able to catch him before he completely hit the floor.

“Is it alright if I carry you?”

Keith’s expression soured, but he nodded. “Yeah, that’s- yeah. Probably for the best.”

Shiro knelt down to get an arm under Keith’s knees and stood up, taking Keith with him. Keith had always been smaller than him, but Shiro wasn’t thrilled with how light he felt. Some well-placed comments to Hunk would fix that right up, though. Hunk loved feeding people for any reason; if he thought Keith wasn’t eating enough there’d be no stopping him. Shiro also knew there were some of the Blade that always hoped Keith would bring cookies back with him any time he visited the Castle.

“Thanks for coming for me.”

Shiro smiled down at him. “We’ll always come for you.”

“Yeah.” Keith slumped against Shiro’s chest, and Shiro headed out to the waiting arms of the team.

**Author's Note:**

> Have questions for me, want to submit a prompt, flail, or just say hi? Come find me on tumblr at [Analisegrey](http://analisegrey.tumblr.com/)!


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